10 Rules for Dating Outside Your Character Class
by Duo Himura
Summary: [RnK] The battle is won. On their way back home, the army is given a night off, and many take advantage of this chance for romance. And, you guessed it, chaos ensues. Each chapter centers on a particular rule, and shows the antics of the various couples.
1. Rule 1: Location, Location, Location

_Author Note: ((Kicks website for making him remove "Simple," and "of," from the title due to space constraints))  
_

_Ah, well, here you have it, my next work that's distracting me from finishing other projects I've already started. Yay for being completely at the mercy of my own whims… or something like that. However, it is very unlikely that I will start anything new before writing another chapter of this, or the second and final chapter of Speak from the Diaphragm, so there's no need for concern that I'm dropping either of those ideas. I'm going on vacation again in about a week, so I might be a while, but that's nothing anyone who follows my Fanfiction career won't be used to by now, I'm sure._

_Anyway, I could resist the urge to leap right into this one when I had the idea, so here's the beginning. I actually think that this is my least potentially offensive work to date, largely because it's set right after the defeat of Nergal, and all of the pairings I'm featuring will be fairly new as couples, if they ever are officially considered such (quite a few A supports that result in an ending where the characters get married don't exactly include blatant declarations of love, after all). Actually, there's only one thing in particular I could think of that might be offensive, and that's a religious-oriented thing. I have the utmost respect for various religions, provided that I'm dealing with someone who doesn't try to force their religion or ideals on others or restrict other people based on their own ideology (All you "Thou shalt not lie with a man as one lies with a woman," citers…), with the possible exception of Scientology, which may fall more into the category of a scam than a religion, if you ask me. Anyway, it's not my intent to offend anyone, just being funny (?) here, but you probably all know that by now._

_And on that subject, I have to speak briefly about this fic in particular. Frankly…well, I'm not entirely convinced it's as funny as my other works, which may mean that some of you will find it totally unappealing. It could be a general lack of any jokes that I was really in love with when I was thinking of the concept, or that I metaphorically pounced on the concept without giving it time to sink in, or it could just be that this is me writing more trans-genre for once, maintaining a serious or semi-serious focus for a longer period of time and not totally killing that mood until I switch scenes. That's actually arguable, but I will say that Hector and Florina are going to be more serious throughout the fic than is my usual practice. Of course, other couples' antics will probably balance and/or totally distort the mood._

_At any rate, I happen to like the humor in the first bit, if it might thereafter not be of its usual quality. As always, I'm appreciative of any comments you might have, compliments or criticisms, though I prefer hearing more than "it's good," if you have something positive to say, and I'd like to not be beaten within an inch of my life if you have something negative to say._

_That being said, I'm going to go through some of the pairings featured in this fic, since they wouldn't fit in the summary. In this chapter, we have HectorxFlorina, NinoxJaffar, though Jaffar doesn't make an appearance, a bit of KentxLyn, though it's really just Kent asking Sain for romantic advice, and all of two or three sentences of EliwoodxNinian, though that will definitely come in later. All of the above pairings will carry throughout the fic, with different ones getting the spotlight depending on the 'rule,' for that particular chapter, since not all of the pairings are going to have moments that easily relate to all of the different rules. Pairings that will probably make appearances are WilxRebecca, even though they're technically the same class, and quite possibly a bit of ErkxSerra, though that I'm really not sure about. Expect… something LIKE RavenxLucius, I'm not really into shonen ai, but they seem blatantly obvious to me, and I guarantee it won't be much of anything if that's a serious turn-off for you (sorry in advance to those who'd want to see more of that). _

_Anyway, so that's about it. So, enjoy, and review if you have the time. Ah… this takes me back to the days when it didn't seem like every entry I made to this account had to be more than 10,000 words… And on that note, I should probably work on Speak from the Diaphragm so I can actually finish something that isn't a one-shot (even if it happens to be a two-shot…)._

**10 Simple Rules for Dating Outside of Your Character Class**

**Rule 1: On the Importance of Atmosphere**

One of the first things you should know when it comes to dating is that atmosphere is very important, the right atmosphere can make up for other shortcomings, while the wrong one can ruin positive traits. In fact, if you yourself have no sense for setting the proper mood, it's recommended that you seek the advice of someone who does. However, here we will endeavor to give you a basic idea of the sorts of things that are both good and bad when it comes to atmosphere.

An ever-popular and timeless setting for a date is a candlelit dinner. It's a highly romantic setting, fitting for most stages in a relationship, and what's more, it comes with food. What's not to like? Well, the bill, maybe, but money is a necessary sacrifice.

A battlefield, conversely, is rather less romantic, not to mention being notoriously bad places to carry on long conversations. However, battles can, in certain instances, help in the progression of a relationship, and those who fight together frequently form a special kind of bond. Nevertheless, seeking to build a relationship during combat can be tricky, and easily backfire, as we will now demonstrate.

The following takes place during one of the many battles faced by Eliwood's group throughout his story in Rekka no Ken, presented in script format for convenience, with italicized lines spoken off-screen. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Japhar: Nyno, about earlier…

Nyno: What?

Japhar: I am sorry, but… I will not be able to keep our promise…

Nyno: But… What do you mean?

_Enimy Grent: AAAAAAAHHHHHH!_

Japhar: I said that I would always be your friend… and that I would always be by your side… but something has changed.

Nyno: No! How could you? You promised! You said…!

_Sian: A little help over here!_

Japhar: … Relax.

Nyno: What, am I just a bother to you? You just want to be rid of me! Then why did you save me in the first place! Why were you so nice to me? How could you let me trust you… And then…

_Enimy Grent 2: Oh Gods the pain!_

Nyno: Betray me…?

Japhar: Nyno, listen to what…

Nyno: Japhar, I hate you! How could you?

Japhar: Nyno! Stop!

_Enimy Grent 3: My leg! I think it's broken!_

Nyno: Let me go! Don't touch me!

Japhar: I love you.

Nyno!

Japhar: I…

_Gyu: I'll kill you!_

Japhar: Love you…

Nyno: Japhar…

Japhar: That is why I can't just be your friend.

_Ekr: Take this!_

Japhar: That is what I wanted to say…

Nyno: … Really…?

_Luckius: No!_

Japhar: Do I look like the joking type?

Nyno: …No. But… it's just so hard to…

Japhar: … love me?

Matty: ((randomly popping in)) Look him in the eye without running, screaming for your mother?

Nyno: No! That's not what I meant. I mean, I… Japhar, I … I love you… too.

Japhar: Nyno… When this battle has ended, we should live together… I will protect you… with my life.

_Will: That's it… I'm… I'm finished…_

Nyno: Yes… Let's always be together… Japhar… Don't ever leave me… Ever. You have to promise.

Japhar: On my honor… On my heart.

_Ranev: Prescera! Get away from her!_

Nyno: Would you ALL JUST SHUT UP! FIMBULVINTER!

At which point our camera equipment was frozen, smashed into pieces, and then buried in snow. Snow, it should be mentioned, makes for a rather romantic scene, as well.

Japhar also brings up a good example of how battles can be beneficial. They're a very appropriate time to dedicate yourself to protecting that oh-so special someone, but more on taking oaths later.

Clearly, battles are not the right place for everyone to attempt romance. However, if handled correctly, they can be an important addition to your list of love locales, if you'll forgive the alliteration.

Next, we'd like to take a brief segment to examine moonlit walks. Moonlit walks are also very popular, and quite romantic, places to have a quiet chat with the person you love, or just enjoy each other's company. However, there are several rules that must be adhered to when choosing your moonlit walk. First, you must be sure to choose a clear night, with a large (preferably full) moon, which provides enough light to see without needing another light source, as this can damage the mood.

Second, where you take your walk is important. The best locales are places with beautiful scenery that doesn't require bright light to enjoy, cliffs overlooking the sea or beaches are good, and forests, if they aren't too dark, can be as well. However, you should probably examine the forest thoroughly first, to ensure that there are no bandits or giant monsters present. An example of such a situation where this absolutely necessary precaution was ignored was captured on film by our brave, and only somewhat wounded for their trouble, camera crew.

The following conversation takes place shortly after a battle experienced by Eliwood's group, in the middle of a moonlit forest. Once again, names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Eliwin: Ninny, I love you. That will not change, no matter what may come.

Ninny: Lord Eliwin…

Badnit Laeder: Up an' at em, boys!

Badnits: RAAAH!

Our brave and at that point significantly less injured camera crew then elected to abandon their equipment in the face of several rather large, armed men, and were injured in the ensuing battle as they attempted to nobly defend themselves with all handy objects, which I'm told included a green, stripped sweater, a handkerchief, several bendy straws, as well as some breadsticks they had brought with for snacks, which I'm also told were the most effective weapons of the bunch.

However, while moonlit nights are great nights for romantic activity, your actual location can, again, greatly determine their effectiveness. In the middle of a city, for instance, with many bright lights, whatever era you happen to hail from, the artificial light tends to blot out the overhead sky, or at least significantly dim it, which ruins the effect. Likewise, if you're trapped in a dungeon somewhere, and have moonlight entering via some form of skylight, if the room is particularly messy or ruinous, or if you happen to be a prisoner, that will also be detrimental to the mood. As for moonlit walks where one of the parties involved is bound, gagged, and stuffed into a sack, which then end with both parties falling some 70 feet down into a narrow ravine with no really evident way back up… well, the jury's out.

When Hector, brother of Marquess Ostia and companion of Eliwood, so to be Marquess Pherae, came to, the first thing he noticed was that he was not at all in one of those places you really want to wake up. Of course, his own bedchamber in Castle Ostia was probably the most comfortable of places where he commonly awoke, but hanging around the castle was dull and tended to be filled with needless formality, in exactly the manner that wandering the countryside looking for trouble wasn't, making Hector at least as happy to wake on a bedroll in a tent somewhere, or even just lying in the middle of a field.

Somewhere between the cold stone he felt pressing against his cheek, the pounding in his head, and the fact that his entire torso felt badly bruised, he guessed he wasn't lying in the middle of a field, or in a tent, for that matter. Waking up on a slab of stone with no remembrance of how you got there was nearly always a bad thing.

All of these things Hector was vaguely aware of when he came to his senses. As the large, blue-haired man looked up, he saw a long crack of dark, star-filled sky high above, and barely discerned the walls of the giant ravine he was at the bottom of.

He didn't know how Matthew was responsible for this, but he was going to _kill _him.

Looking back down at himself, he saw, atop the armor he nearly always wore, the tangle of worn wooden planks and braided rope that had once been part of a small bridge laying across his legs, and suddenly recalled how he had come to be here. For the reader's benefit, the aforementioned rush of information will be presented in a chronological and coherent manner. We here at Flashback Enterprises thusly take great pride in presenting, "The Previous Day in the Life of Hector, Brother of Marquess Ostia and Companion of Eliwood, soon to be Marquess of Pherae, presented here for the sake of understanding what exactly he is doing, unconscious until just recently, at the bottom of a ravine." It was going to be the first DS installment of the series, but even in Japanese it just didn't fit on the card.

Hector, brother of… yeah, you probably know by now, sighed in frustration. This large, imposing man, who could dispatch dozens of lesser foes alone, this future leader of Ostia, this man who had wielded the legendary axe Armads, felt totally and utterly defeated, mere days after achieving what was likely to be the greatest victory, in terms of combat, of his life. Sitting on a log some distance away from the commotion in the center of the camp as other members of the group struggled to put everything together, he stared off into the sun, already nearing the western horizon.

"Something troubling you, milord?" came an all-too familiar voice from behind him.

"Matthew," he addressed its owner, "I'm really not in the mood right now…"

"And, much as it is my policy to be out of striking distance when you're in a bad mood, this one has been going on for entirely too long. So, out of the goodness of my heart, I'm here to help." The blond thief walked into the lord's field of vision, more or less forcing the eye contact that Hector had been hoping to avoid, but had no will to deliberately shy away from.

"Gods be praised," he answered sarcastically, clasping his hands together in mock prayer.

"Are you going to tell me what's bothering you, or not?" the other man demanded impatiently.

"All right, all right," Hector consented. He sighed, took a breath to compose himself, and began. "It's just… well, we're finished, right? We beat Nergal and the Black Fang, closed the Dragon's Gate, we made it off of Valor in one piece, and now we're just heading back to Ostia, and then Eliwood will go on to Pherae and Lyndis will go back to Caelin, and all the others will go wherever it is that they want, so… what then?"

"Everything goes back to normal, I suppose," Matthew replied with a shrug.

"But that's just it!" he protested. "After everything we went through together as a group, it doesn't… seem right to just part ways like this…"

The rogue gazed at his lord with his keen eyes for a moment, as if they could determine that the man before him was, in fact, an imposter. He wasn't used to seeing his lord so emotional… well, actually he very frequently had a chance to see the man angry, quite often followed by a temporary loss of consciousness, but he wasn't used to seeing him so sentimental.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with a certain purple-haired Pegasus Knight, would it?" the man finally asked. Hector stared in shock for a moment, a denial at his lips, but no sound emerged from his mouth. Matthew laughed, "Information is my business, you know. So, you don't want her to go back to Caelin?"

Hector nodded. "I keep trying to talk to her, but she always ends up leaving before I actually say anything…"

"You're sure that's not related to the fact that you're trying to talk to one of our more valued warriors in the middle of combat?" Matthew asked dryly.

"It's the same thing regardless of where we happen to be," he said, without denying the accusation.

"Maybe you could work on being less… frightening?" Matthew suggested.

"And undo seventeen years of hard work?" he asked.

"You must unlearn what you have learned," the thief told him, nodding his head.

"I don't have time for your proverbs, Matthew, it's a three-day march back to Ostia, four if we take it easy."

"Well, then you can get her into a position where she can't back out until you've had a chance to talk," he recommended, with the air of a sage passing on a vital secret.

"That's it!" he exclaimed, springing to his feet. "I'll kidnap her! There must be some place romantic around here… Matthew, if anyone wants me tell them that I'm scouting around and they can talk to me tomorrow unless it's vitally important," Hector instructed the spy as he walked past him.

"Milord, that's not exactly what I had in mind…" Matthew valiantly tried to repair the damage. However, Hector, being Hector, was already too far gone, both in planning and in physical distance, for the words to reach him.

He then sighed, watching the man head for the woods next to their camp, perhaps not the wisest place they could have set themselves up, but certainly convenient for firewood. He didn't count the ability to see the future among his, admittedly long, list of positive qualities, but he had the distinct feeling that however this ended, he was going to be injured before all was said and done.

And, as it turned out, Hector had gone on to find a nice little clearing around a beautiful, picturesque lake in the midst of the woods that would be a perfect place to kidnap someone to, or have a nice, romantic moment with someone in, or in his case, do both of the above. The journey was relatively easy, nothing that would present a problem if he was carrying someone at the time, and basically just involved a simple trek through the woods, though there was one rickety old bridge he had had to cross, leading over a ravine little more than 10 feet wide. He had crossed cautiously that first time, but it had held him fine, albeit with a substantial bit of creaking, and he figured anything that could support him without being pushed right to its limit wouldn't find the added weight of Florina much of a challenge.

When he recalled that particular moment in the events leading up to his present situation, Hector remarked at the irony of that thought. Well, it _would _have held the both of them, had everything gone according to plan. And though he then thought on where his plan had gone awry, for our purposes this moment lies some time in the future, yet.

A few hours later, once the camp had been sufficiently set up and rations prepared, Eliwood had called the group together, saying he wished to make an announcement. Standing on a stump, facing the assembled group, whose numbers had exceeded 30 some time ago, though many of those had clearly been in with them as a temporary occupation only, and planned to depart the group shortly.

"Well, everyone," the red-haired, slender man began, the bandage across his chest where he had received a nasty burn wound from the dragon they had fought still visible through a tear in his shirt that he hadn't yet had the chance to mend. "We've got the camp set up, and food as well, I think that, seeing as we just accomplished our task and are finally headed back home, we can relax our guard tonight. Why doesn't everyone take the night off from their usual duties and-," his suggestion was drowned out by a nearly simultaneous cheer from the less somber members of the group. Laughing at their enthusiasm, the young man scanned the crowd with his blue eyes, then leapt down from the stump and tried to make his way around it as quickly as possible. There was someone in particular he wanted to see, and right then she was somewhere else.

The night off had actually been Hector's suggestion, but Eliwood had agreed wholeheartedly that, if anything in this area was more dangerous than a nearly immortal Dark Druid and an enraged Fire Dragon, aided by a group of morphs copying the strongest warriors of the Black Fang, then there was relatively little that they were going to be able to do about it in their condition anyway, and the whole of the continent was probably doomed. Bearing the thought of their struggles in mind, it didn't particularly matter whether or not they set up a watch, especially considering that the group of assassins that had been repeatedly trying to kill them were now pretty much gone. After all, how likely was it to come across someone who would attack what amounted to a small army, having eliminated the only threat that had faced them for some time?

I'm sure it will surprise you all to learn that a group of bandits did NOT at that very moment spring from the woods and attack.

And so, Hector had gone about his plan. He later noted that, for all that Florina could smite just about anything thrown at her with one or two blows, she really wasn't as aware of her surroundings as she probably should be. Sneaking up on her had been rather easy, he had waited, ducked behind the makeshift stable where the horses, and Pegasi, were kept when she entered, and when she came back out clamped a hand, which held a cloth pilfered from Matthew for just this purpose, over her mouth. In a moment the tiny, purple-haired girl collapsed, him catching her with his other hand before she could hit the ground. Fortunately, or perhaps, unfortunately, considering his present situation, no one had been around the stable to see him, quite possibly a deliberate action on Florina's part, when he considered it later.

So, he had tied her up, only just tightly enough to stop her from breaking loose at an inopportune time, knowing that her delicate form hid a strength that would make most grown men jealous… if it hadn't already driven a lance through one of any number of vital organs. He had stopped for a minute in the middle of this process, becoming lost in the act of watching her sleep for a moment. He gave himself a shake, mentally and physically, telling himself to get back on task, fighting back a sudden desire to just sit there and watch over her while she slept.

So, gently placing her in a sack, which he had padded with a few of the company's extra pillows, he set out with the now officially kidnapped girl slung over his shoulder. For a moment he paused to consider exactly how ridiculous his own actions were, but, Hector thought, damned if he was going to stop doing ridiculous things after 17 years of it. Hector was very much a creature of habit.

Everything had been going smoothly, no one halted him exiting the camp; Hector was pretty well known for carrying around more axes than was probably needed or wise. Lyn did look at him sort of funny as he passed her, but if she suspected something, she didn't say or do anything. So, Hector, only slightly unnerved, went on.

He made his way through the forest quickly. Though he had gagged Florina as a precaution, he was hoping to make it to, or close to, his destination before she woke up. This, as luck would have it, happened just as he came to what was easily the roughest part of the journey, crossing the rope bridge. As he began to cross it he felt sudden movement in the sack, the girl within apparently trying to flail around rather effectively, though it unbalanced Hector than actually injured him. Still, the sudden motion caused him to stumble a bit, which set the bridge swaying, and, as if that weren't enough, at that moment, a white streak, familiar to Hector the many times he had anxiously watched it charge a foe, or narrowly avoid an arrow, came into his view.

Huey was a relatively simple Pegasus, not surprisingly. He knew how to fight, how to understand what his rider wanted him to do, even if he didn't understand all of her words themselves, and of course, he knew the things that all Pegasi know, how to fly, certain aerial maneuvers that come naturally, and others that most learn through training, wild Pegasi being rare indeed with Ilia's economy so dependent on mercenaries. He also loved his rider dearly, and if she was in trouble, and for some reason not already riding him, he was to try and rectify the situation.

Unfortunately he lacked the perception needed to understand concepts like being too shy to talk to someone, or feeling the need to 'force,' someone to let you speak your mind without interruption. His eyesight, however, as well as his link with his rider, which really did move a bit into the realm of a psychic connection at times, were both excellent, so though he had no idea of the reason, his knowledge that someone had his rider bound, gagged, stuffed in a sack, and slung over his shoulder, was clear in his mind. That it was that guy with the blue hair only made sense, he had threatened Huey with an axe before, and Florina seemed really afraid of him.

And so Huey pounced, in the Pegasus fashion, that is, flying in at the target with flailing forelegs, on the man from the front, careful to avoid the sack that contained his beloved rider, and stuck numerous blows across Hector's upper body. Fortunately for the noble, the blows mostly rained down upon his armor, which was capable of enduring them with little bruising to his chest itself. Unfortunately for him, Huey also wasn't used to such insubstantial, swaying bridges, and, as he adopted almost the position of an ordinary, earthbound horse fighting with its hooves, the swinging bridge managed to tangle his hindquarters and hind legs in its side.

Huey kept flailing away, now more because he was stuck in that position, unless Hector backed up quite a bit, than because he was still intent on harming the man. This struggling served only to tangle the bridge around himself further, and cause its swaying to worsen. What's more, the added weight of the horse, which, in truth, came from a species that would be too heavy to be able to fly if not for their magical nature, seemed to be pushing the bridge to its limit, and perhaps beyond. Though Huey remained ignorant of these facts, Hector wasn't.

"Stop it, you bird-brained horse! You're going to-," Hector's warning was cut off as the very thing he had been about to foretell happened. The bridge, pushed beyond its carrying capacity, stretched beyond where its limit should have been by the detour it took around Huey's rear half, and pounded on by Pegasus hooves, gave way. For good or ill, the rope had weakened such that an entire section of the bridge simply dropped out at once, rather than snapping in two and likely dashing its occupants against the rocks.

Needless to say, there was now quite a bit of air beneath Hector and Huey, and Florina as well, though she wasn't aware of it and hadn't actually been in contact with the ground. A common misconception about air is that it won't hold a person up. The air, as an aerologist will tell you, is always more than happy to hold a person up. If only they weren't so darn heavy, that is. And so, though that great volume of air that filled the ravine below them did indeed try its very best to hold Hector and Huey aloft, if found that once again, gravity had conspired against its efforts, and the two fell like… well, like a winged horse and a very large, heavy man wearing armor who suddenly found themselves conspicuously bridgeless.

Ordinarily, this sort of situation presented no problem for the Pegasus. He'd just start kicking at the air, flap his wings a few times, and be flying again. However, that strategy failed when he discovered that his legs had effectively been tied together, and his right wing pinned down. All of which was made substantially worse by the fact that Huey had just entered as much of a dive as he could manage in order to bring himself below the armored man who still held his rider.

Hector reached out and tried to grab at Huey as the Pegasus passed beneath him. After several failed attempts, he finally got something of a grip on the beast's neck and pulled himself closer to it, hoping that, if its tangled limbs prevented flight, it could at least land without killing all of them. It was at about that moment when Huey unfurled his left wing, which had escaped the tangled web of rope, and sent them into a downward spiral, which, while better than a straight plummet in terms of not hitting the bottom at a velocity that would kill them, did not do wonders for Hector's already tenuous grip.

The lord felt his grip beginning to go. Murmuring a prayer to the gods that she'd be okay, Hector released his grip on the sack that held Florina, just as his fingers lost their hold on the horse's neck. Hector felt himself flying forward, then crashing into something, then had blacked out.

Which brings us back to the present, with Hector, some time later, though how much he had no idea, suddenly realizing why he was at the bottom of the ravine. He felt something brush against him, and turned his head to see Huey, several feet away. The poor creature was on his side, left wing splayed out about as far as it could go, vainly trying to push its owner back upright, or else just twitching in pain. Red blood spotted its otherwise white coat, and, though Hector knew relatively little of Pegasi, the valiant beast looked to be in terrible shape.

But where was Florina? His eyes darted around, searching for the sack that she had been in, his ears straining for the sound of muffled cries or her struggles against her confines. What had happened after he had let go? Where was she? If she was hurt, he-

Suddenly, he spotted the sack, lying a few more feet from Huey, on the side opposite the noble. Untangling his legs from the mass of bridge that Huey had brought down with him, Hector leapt to his feet, taking a few shaky steps to balance himself, then dashed over to the abandoned sack. With no patience for untying and opening the thing, he tore a knife from his belt and ripped into the side of it, desperate in his need to know that the Pegasus Knight was unharmed. He ripped the bag off of her, revealing her still unconscious body, bruised all over, her clothes torn a bit, but seemingly unharmed. The faint rise and fall of her chest indicated that she was still breathing.

Hector sighed in relief. It looked like Huey had taken the brunt of the fall and spared them most of it. He vaguely recalled that they had been close to the ground when he simultaneously let go of Florina and lost his own grip. Under any other circumstances, Huey probably would have given an indignant snort at the man's relief, but the horse now merely took deep, laborious breaths, though he was, at some level, aware and happy that his dear friend was alive and, seemingly, if not well, then better off than he himself was.

The armored man cut the girl's bonds, undid the gag in her mouth, and then stood back up. It was all well and fine that none of them were dead, but what now? If he had to take a guess, it would be that Huey wasn't flying anywhere until they got to someone with a Heal staff, and he didn't have a clue where to even begin trying to give the Pegasus first aid. What was more, how were they going to get out of that ravine? Certainly when they didn't turn up, everyone would start looking for them… well, tomorrow, at any rate. Lyn, he supposed, might start looking when they didn't come back that night, but he wasn't entirely certain he'd want her to be the one who found them, in that case.

Even so, though, the ravine was fairly narrow, and no one knew where they had been going. The forest was a big place, and given that the canopy overhead, though it would allow light in, didn't particular lend itself to being seen through, he doubted that an aerial search would come far into the forest. And either way, they were pretty far down, they'd need some sort of method to attract attention to themselves… A fire would be best, the smoke could even tell everyone where they were, but how to build a fire…

"L-l-lord Hector?" a soft voice that he knew well, despite not hearing it speak frequently, said groggily. He looked back down to see Florina slowly pushing herself upright, eyes still barely focused. Suddenly they went wide; "Huey!" she exclaimed, and was on her feet and at the Pegasus' side in an instant, dropping to her knees to examine the battered horse with an expression of terror on her face and tears in her eyes.

"Oh… Huey…" she said softly, and he whinnied softly in response. She carefully checked over his legs and wings, never moving them more than was absolutely necessary for fear of causing them more harm. "Th… three of his legs are broken," she said for Hector's benefit, trying to keep her voice steady despite the tears rolling down her face. "His wing is sprained, and he's… bleeding internally on the other side… We… we need some sort of magic healing, quickly, or… I don't know if he'll make it…" the last bit came out as barely a whisper.

Hector nodded, rooted where he stood. He wanted to console her somehow, but… what could he possibly say? 'I'm sorry your horse is hurt, oh, and by the way, this is all my fault to begin with'? Abruptly, he turned from her and began walking down the ravine in the opposite direction.

"L-lord Hector?" she turned blue-green, tear-filled eyes in his direction.

"Do what you can for him," he spoke without turning to look at her. "I'll… I'll find us a way out of here." And before she could reply, he was running further down the ravine, and was soon lost from sight in the dim light that came from above.

Erk was known, first and foremost, as a mage, a practitioner of anima magic, the elemental magic that drew upon the spirits that inhabit the world. He was a man who lived for his studies, always seeking to further understand the world and magic itself. For, in the end, with adequate knowledge and a bit of preparation, any problem could be conquered. Or so he had always thought. Lately he wasn't so sure. But of course, most of his present, unfathomable problems seemed to be related to a lack of knowledge more than knowledge failing to provide him with a solution.

For instance, there was the question as to why, he, Erk, student of Lord Pent, one of the greatest sages of the time, he himself only beginning to walk that path followed by the most skilled of anima magic users, and all around widely considered a force to be reckoned with, was standing here, in this tent, dressed in a black suit, a bow tie, had recently combed his hair, and most of all, why all of this was complimented by the _platter_ he carried on his arm.

"_Why,_ exactly, am I doing this, again?" he voiced his question, seeking some external answer now that his internal powers of reasoning had so utterly failed him.

"Because it's impossible to say 'no,' to Nino when she makes that sad puppy face?" suggested the man who stood next to him, similarly attired. Few who did not know him well would recognize the Sacean Swordmaster, Guy, as he appeared now. His usual hair braid was undone, and his long, dark hair had been neatly combed, much akin to Erk's. He likewise carried a platter, though he handled it with a bit more confidence than the mage, probably stemming from the fact that, if he dropped the large plate, he could cut it up three different ways before it hit the ground, and that was counting the time it would take him to fetch his sword, let alone catching the thing.

"Are you two ready yet?" came a voice from outside, and into the tent emerged a rather bulky, muscular man, though he was a lot less bulky without the armor he usually wore. Guy couldn't help but snicker at the sight of Oswin in a suit and bow tie, which earned him a glare from the knight, though he didn't say anything.

This ability to ignore the Sacean probably came from calling upon the discipline he had learned through years of fulfilling his knightly duty. With compatriots like Serra and Matthew, it took quite a bit of discipline to so consistently remain stern and stone-faced, a metaphor which he himself disliked after one memorable instance when he had been drugged by Matthew, who had then filled the man's armor with rocks shaped in such a way to support it standing upright. It wasn't so much the action itself that had bothered the knight as the fact that no one had noticed. All of this was made somewhat worse by the fact that Matthew had miscalculated mixing the drug, causing it to put him into a coma-like state for three days, instead of the intended 8 hours.

This event is also notable as the single instance when Oswin more or less lost control of himself, enough to utter the phrase, "I'm going to kill Matthew," which my more loyal readers will already know is quite popular among the group at large.

"Where did Nino get all of this stuff, anyway?" Erk felt compelled to ask.

"Now _that_ I don't know," Guy admitted to the mage, stepping over to where the knight waited impatiently, an emotion he tended to display only when it was related to his duty. Suffice it to say, he and Kent, fellow duty-obsessed knight that he was, had had some very interesting… conversations, a more liberal user of the word might call them.

When three of his employees had shown up late, clad in undershirts and boxers, the owner of Le Restaurante in the nearby town of Oh-ho-ho-ville (pronounced with a bad French accent if you aren't completely ignorant), he had immediately demanded an explanation. He had refused to believe their tale of a young girl suddenly appearing before them, magically removing their uniforms and serving platters, and then disappearing as rapidly as she had come, despite the credibility that their present attire lent the statement. Of course, he might have been more willing to believe them if this hadn't been the third time they'd tried that excuse. How many magic-wielding little girls did they think there were, anyway? Fire Emblem veterans will, at this point, scoff loudly, if it pleases them to do so.

"Smells good, who's doing the cooking?" Guy asked as the group, having left behind their changing tent, now approached the tent that Nino had commissioned from Raven and Sain by means of an Excalibur spell and… generally looking cute, respectively. Neither of the companions indulged his curiosity, and after giving each an affronted glance, he let it drop.

The group pressed aside the flap, smells of various exotic spices procured by Nino in manners that would have made Matthew extremely jealous wafting over them. The group saw Lucius, wearing white apron with a blue cross in the center over his usual robes, as well as what can only be described as the single largest hairnet in any world not inhabited by people several times the size of normal humans. The man stirred the contents of a pot, hanging over the fire, with a wooden spoon, then twisted around and began applying a knife to several freshly acquired vegetables with all the precise skill one for some reason expects he would have.

"Somehow this makes perfect sense…" Guy remarked, though he wasn't entirely sure why, given the disposition towards silence that his fellows so frequently displayed.

Nino had initially asked if he had any interest in taking part in the cooking, by which I mean that she had turned on him with a spell prepared and demanded if he had any useful cooking skills. He was quickly proven wrong in his assumption that masterful swordsmanship could carry over into other forms of cutting skills when he accidentally pureed several of the vegetables he had been given to work on in mid-air. This was carried out with all of the effect one expects from vegetables going through a blender that had nothing resembling a containment device on it, and he was currently hoping that Heath had a particular fondness for the color orange, as it was unlikely to come out of his tent without extensive washing.

When Guy had mentioned this incident to him in an attempt to engage the mage in conversation, Erk had commented that Nino could probably run the entire army if she wanted to, an opinion echoed by many.

Lucius at last took note of the three other's presence, and turned to face them. "The blessings of St. Elmine be upon you, my brothers," the monk said, clasping his hands together.

"I think I should tell you that I'm an atheist…" Guy informed the blond… um… man… yes, that's right.

"Wait, St. Elmine isn't a god. He's a Saint," Erk said, willing to break his silence in order to correct the swordsman, as Lucius drew back with a mortified expression on his face. "And besides which, you regularly work with people who use divine power, how can you possibly deny that there's some force that makes those work?"

"I just don't find the concept of a higher being who controls the destiny of the universe very likely. I mean, what sort of benevolent, omnipotent entity would allow, say, Nergal?" Guy turned to the mage as he spoke.

"But the fact that Nergal didn't succeed in his evil plans can, in that argument, be taken as proof that said entity could very well exist and allows evil to exist for the sake of opposing good, while never allowing it to completely triumph," the mage responded.

"Okay, then what about genocide? Why is that allowed to take place while this upper being refuses to interfere?"

"Well, from the perspective of an all-powerful being who created humans and thus understands them, if we never faced problems, we would never learn or grow as individuals, or as a race. Witnessing horrible things only reaffirms in the mind how terrible they are and creates a greater desire to put an end to them than if there were just a possibility of them occurring in the future."

"Ah, but if this thing created humans, then why not make them with that understanding to begin with? Humans are supposed to be in the image of this entity, but are flawed by nature while it is supposedly perfect, so doesn't that make the whole of existence a giant 'what if?' scenario to indulge that being's fantasies, if you will."

"No one said he couldn't be benevolent, perfect, and also decide to create all of existence out of boredom."

"What _is _existence, anyway?" Oswin interjected. "Is a person's mind just the result of a series of firing neurons in the brain, or do they actually possess a soul, if you will, a part of being that isn't tied to the physical body and can survive death?"

"But if its perfect wouldn't it be perfectly capable of amusing itself?" Guy completely ignored the knight.

"Sure, hence existence," Erk replied.

"Isn't that a little detached for a benevolent God? I mean, to create everything just because It was tired of nothingness?"

"Well, to continue this line of debate further, you'd have to define existence," Erk said, getting at more or less the same point Oswin had made while still paying the man no heed.

"Your point is lucid," Guy conceded.

"Your arguments, as well, are well aimed," Erk commented.

"However, by your reasoning we still exist mostly for the sake of seeing what would happen if we exist, that's a very belittling world view," Guy said.

"Hey, I agree with you." When Guy stared at him for a moment, Erk explained with a shrug, "I just enjoy a good argument."

"I am surrounded by infidels!" Lucius cried, and made for the opposite side of the tent, only to have his progress arrested by Nino.

"Ah, yes, the real reason light magic can never defeat anima magic, anima magic users can debate circles around it," Guy remarked.

"Never let it be said that I do not love what I do," the purple-haired mage added.

"Is the food ready?" Nino demanded of Lucius, who was trying, rather ineffectively, to edge around her.

"I did not know I was working for unbelievers…" Lucius muttered, then, at a glare from Nino, answered, "Yes, it is."

"Good," the mage, a green haired, slender girl of fourteen years who could have passed for being younger easily, nodded.

"Nino, I think I should council you that you aren't old enough for any serious romantic activity, and advise you to not do anything that you may later-," the monk began with the air of a priest lecturing a student, which was practically the case, before Nino cut him off.

"Yes, yes, religious zealot-talk. I've heard this before, so you can go."

"But I think I should tell you that it's considered a sin to en-,"

"Go!" she shouted, jabbing a finger at the door behind her that the monk turned chef had been only too willing to exit through a moment before.

"Man, I wish he was the kind of monk who took vows of silence…" Guy commented, and the others nodded in agreement.

Grumbling, the aforementioned monk made his way out the back of the tent, tearing off the only hairnet on the planet that could contain his waist-length hair. There he found two other robed men, one wearing a sort of shawl ending in braided string and a skull cap atop a head of graying hair, the other wearing more of a pointed cap that concealed his hair.

"Yeah, didn't go so hot for us, either," the one in the pointed cap said.

"Oy vey," the other said, shaking his head. "Kids these days."

"I'd just like to thank all of you for your help," Nino now addressed the three waiter-clad warriors.

"Like we had a choice…" muttered Erk.

"Yes, and, on that note, I feel compelled to tell you that this is something I've been wanting to put together for a very long time now, so if anything goes wrong, you had all better learn to sleep with your eyes open," the green-haired girl said cheerfully. "So get everything ready, I'm going to go change and then find Jaffar." And, leaving them with that sobering threat in their minds, Nino turned and left the tent, a slight spring in her step.

"I… didn't know Nino was quite that scary. Did you know Nino was that scary?" Guy questioned Erk.

"Somehow I always figured she might be…" the suited mage answered.

"Ah, love," Oswin said wistfully, only to once again be ignored by both of his companions. And people wondered why he didn't talk much.

"Hey, Kent, what did you want?" Sain asked his friend, a rather stern faced, orange haired man. "I've got big plans for tonight, so could you-,"

"Sain, I need your help," the other man admitted, all in one breath, as if he had to say it quickly, or else his common sense would reassert itself.

"Ah, Kent, how long I've waited for this day!" the brown haired, green armored knight exclaimed. "Step into my office," he gestured to the tent outside which they stood.

"Sain, that's my tent…" Kent informed him.

"Yes, well, do you want me to help you with Lady Lyndis or not?" he demanded.

"Fine, fine… Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to regret this?" the other said.

"Oh, _that_ feeling. Don't worry, it's probably just a warning of things to come."

"Well that was a confidence builder, there…" Kent remarked, and the two went inside the tent.

"Right, well, there are a few things one has to know about dating. The first one is about the importance of the location of the date," Sain explained. "Now, some areas that are good locations are-,"

"The Author beat you to it. Please don't go through it again," Kent interrupted. The green knight glared at his red counterpart until the latter felt compelled to say, "Well, it wouldn't be a Duo Himura fic if we didn't break the Fourth Wall on at least one occasion…"

Sain had no choice but to admit to the validity of that claim, and so, resumed his explanation of the other rules.

There is one last, vital facet to the question of where to have your date. Typically, the best date locations are relatively private, quiet, and serene. However, as I just stated, there is one very, _very, _important final requirement for a particular area to be a good choice for a date, and it was this last aspect that Eliwood, leader of this motley group, now faced. He had found a lovely little patch of moonlit woods, scoured it thoroughly for bandits, and then one-upped the whole thing by setting up a candle-lit dinner _in _the moonlit patch of woods. Yes, everything was perfect, except for one thing, which, unfortunately, happened to be this one extremely important thing.

"Would someone _please_ tell me where Ninian is?" the red-haired lord cried in frustration.

End of Rule 1. Please turn to side two of disk one for Rule 2.

Next time on 10 Simple Rules for Dating Outside of Your Character Class, we discuss the importance of Speech Preparation. And... something will be revealed... that will not surprise any of you. Jikai, "I know I've got my flashcards here somewhere..." You will see the tears of time. SEE THEM!


	2. Rule 2: Don't forget to, um, uh, crap

_Author Note: I don't own anything from Fire Emblem… unless the games themselves count, in which case I own those, but I don't own the rights to them, those belong to some truly awesome Japanese folks. Here's to Fire Emblem Wii, may it fix Path of Radiance's lackluster ending. ((Toasts Root Beer)) Oh, and while I'm making requests, how about another game with Hector and Florina in it- ((gets shot))._

_Okay, well, turns out I'm leaving more towards the middle of the week than the beginning. This creates the possibility of a further update before I go, but I refuse to make a promise on that, because it will undoubtedly not work out that way if I do._

_Now, about the fic… once again, I find myself more uncertain than I usually am if it's any good. Usually I can find a bit more to laugh about in something I myself wrote, but maybe that's just the nature of this, or maybe I'm just overdoing it with FE stuff in too short a period of time. Either way, I don't exactly think it's –bad- just maybe not among my best work. For comedy. _

_Which brings me to my next point. Florina and Hector remain more serious, and –that- I am enjoying quite a bit. I've actually got more planned out for them than I do for anyone else, which is basically just saying that I've put some thought into the dialogue exchanges rather than just what's going to happen to them. I originally wrote that right after Nino's bit, but then said to myself "I can't go back to being funny after this," and so it got pushed to the end…A formula I may end up sticking with._

_And…at about half as long as my last chapter, this is my shortest chapter in… forever. Since "Light's Shadow, Shadow's Light," anyway. Interestingly enough, I tend to write longer chapters for comedy than I do when I'm writing something serious. Go figure. Anyway, so, yeah, an abnormally short chapter. Will this be a trend, increasing the chances of me updating again before I have to leave? No clue whatsoever until I end up writing the ideas I've got. So, until next time, be it in two days or two weeks, enjoy._

_As a random side note, I'm not sure if anyone else has access to this information, but this fic actually already has more hits than… anything but "This Path of Radiance Seems Awfully Familiar." (only barely more than "Of Prewedding Jitters and the House of Frob," but still more) I'm wondering if it has to do with the timing of me posting it (I know "Of Prewedding Jitters" stayed on the first page a while, and it's still on the first page of its C2 communities), the name, or what…Or maybe since the summary didn't give away any of the pairings, people took one look at my favorite couples and clicked the back button. It can't have been the summary, it wasn't that good… um… anyway… just something odd I noticed. And, though I'm not review obsessed, I'm always happy to get –a- comment… maybe slightly less so if someone tells me that I suck, but I don't recall that happening yet, so… yeah… I've probably brought this on myself by never once having reviewed anything, but I'd appreciate some feedback if you've got the time._

**10 Simple Rules for Dating Outside of Your Character Class**

**Rule 2: On Preparing Speeches**

Our second dating rule takes a look at the process of preparing what you plan to say to your date in advance. Now, this can be both a great practice and a disastrous one, so allow us to provide you with some tips as to how to guarantee the former and avoid the latter scenario.

First, it is usually a good idea to have some concept of what you want to say to your date in mind. Even if you choose not to write it down or plan out an entire speech or anything, if you're the type who gets nervous on dates, being spontaneous can backfire. If nothing else, put some thought into the sort of things you'd like to say, and go from there.

This may actually be a wiser approach, as writing an entire speech is more likely to backfire. For starters, if your memory isn't up to the task of recalling the entire thing, it will cause problems for all of the obvious reasons. Secondly, if, in an attempt to bolster your memory, you write the speech down somewhere, make sure it's easily readable, somewhere you can access easily and discreetly, that you'll be using these lines in a well-lit area, and, above all, that you don't _sound_ like you're reading off of a note card.

However, probably the most important rule to keep in mind when making extensive preparations for what you want to say is this: Remain flexible. Do not try to assume what your date's reaction will be and base the rest of what you want to say on those assumptions, and do not remove your own ability to alter what you want to say based on your date's reactions.

Our camera crew is very proud to present the following, an example of someone who unfortunately made the above mistakes. This is a crowning achievement for them, because they actually managed to do so without sustaining any injuries, for once. Well, one of them fell laughing out of a tree where he was keeping watch and hasn't been heard from since, but… no one liked that guy anyway. He was kind of an ass.

The following takes place during the quest that Eliwood and co went on to defeat Nergal, during a brief reprieve the group received in the midst of a battle, where both sides momentarily retreated due to rain. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. Japanese culture references have been removed to protect the children! Oh, wait, that's a different gig I announce for, sorry…

The following has been paid for by:

Coca Cola. You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find that you get what you need. Yeah, I don't get that ad campaign either.

Bandai: We don't need no stinking writers. We've got the MAGIC… of nepotism!

4Kids Entertainment: All your Anime R belongs to us. Kahn will bury you!

Master Card: There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's manipula- uh… Master Card. Now with 10 times more Zeta Gundam than our competitors (there honestly was a Zeta Gundam Master Card in Japan to coincide with the "A New Translation," movies and the series' 20th anniversary)!

McDonalds: We love to see you SMILE! We definitely weren't bought out by the Joker from Batman who's disguised himself as Ronald McDonald, those are just rumors.

Burger King: Wake up with the King. WE DEFINITLEY DON'T SPIKE OUR FOOD!

And viewers like you! Okay, no, you're not any help at all. We all hate you. Go away. But up our ratings first.

Oh, and remember, kids, YOU are your anti-drug!

Will: Hey… What are you so mad about? Did I do something?

Lebecca: …..

Will: I don't get it…

Lebecca: You're right… sorry I kind of randomly freaked out, it's just, when you and Dan never came back…

Will: You can't let it go, can you? That stuff from when we were little…

Lebecca: Eh? That's a strange thing to say…

Will: What does that mean?

Lebecca: That you're… acting crazy?

Will: Dan hasn't come back yet?

Lebecca: No… Why?

Will: Well, Dan and I left together to make our fortunes, to help our families. Of course, things didn't go so well… But when we parted at Badon, that was only a few months after leaving the village!

Lebecca: Well, it's okay, cause everyone thinks that he's really that amnesiac pirate guy Datre.

Will: … I'm sorry, Lebecca. I thought Dan had returned to Pherae long ago.

Lebecca: Will… are you even listening to me?

Will: Lebecca… I'm sorry I left… It must have been… hard.

Lebecca: Will! Will! ((Waving her hand in front of his face))

Will: I won't leave you again… I'll always stay near… and protect you…

Lebecca: ((Walks away, Will remains where he is for a few minutes before noticing and chasing after her))

So you see, preplanning what you're going to say without leaving yourself room to maneuver based on changing circumstances is usually a very bad idea. You just can't predict what your date will say with that much accuracy. Particularly if you're working from an advance copy of the script which we later altered. Mwahahah! Mwhahahahah! Ahem. Poor Will. Don't let it happen to you. Stay in school. Don't do drugs. Always eat your broccoli. Um… dammit, they don't pay me enough to make random jokes, just read the story.

Nino skipped happily through the cluster of tents that made up much of the group's campsite, having just delivered her death threat to the unfortunate three who she had gotten to agree to helping her. She wasn't really paying much attention to where she was going, her own tent still a little ways away, so it wasn't particularly surprising when she skipped directly into a passerby.

However, she hadn't at all expected to wake up several minutes later, flat on her back, staring into the familiar, kindly face of Canas, the group's sole Druid and master of ancient, frequently called "Dark," arts. He'd be the first to deny the accuracy of the latter adjective, but having had that conversation with Lucius on several occasions, and the fact that he still twitched sometimes during thunderstorms as an aftereffect, he wasn't one to bring it up.

"Sorry about that…" he said, smiling. "I guess I was carrying a few too many giant tomes with me…"

"… Exactly how many is 'a few too many,' Uncle Canas?" the girl asked, rubbing the rather large bump on her head, which felt something like when Florina had been so busy staring at… something, that she had landed Huey almost on top of the green haired mage. Almost in this case meaning that she had only gotten clipped by the horse's hoof, so it didn't end up on top of her after she collapsed to the ground. She could probably thank the Afa Drops Eliwood gave her for that one…

"Only three," he answered, drawing a look of absolute surprise from the young girl. Three was the bare minimum number of books Canas ever had on him, and that was in addition to the spell casting tomes he used. "And you know, we're not really sure if I'm actually your uncle…"

"What three books?" She climbed to her feet unsteadily, taking a hand offered by Canas.

"Oh, Encyclopedia of the Magic Arts, The Traveler's Non-Travel-Friendly Guide to Traveling, and the Encyclopedia Eturia Centurion Edition," he listed them off enthusiastically.

"Aren't those normally ten volume sets, if not more?" Nino asked, understanding beginning to dawn on her.

"Yes, well, I thought 'Who wants to carry around ten books just to have a complete encyclopedia handy?' and got the single volume compilation."

"Isn't that just as bad as carrying around ten books, only made worse by the fact that they're all one giant book which is very difficult to carry, open, and read?" she asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Hence you being knocked unconscious," he replied with a shrug that said 'Hugely oversized and awkward tomes, what're you gonna do?'

"Oh! Was I out for long, Uncle Canas?" she asked, suddenly anxious.

"Just a few minutes, why?" he replied, adjusting his monocle. One day someone would question the wisdom of such lopsided eye aiding devices, but he had the feeling that day was several millennia, or at least, hundreds of years, away.

"Oh, I'm trying to set up a romantic dinner for Jaffar and myself, and I was just going to get ready, and-,"

"Oh, about that," he interrupted. "Don't you think you're getting a bit carried away? Raven just, ah… commandeered my tent. Something about not having an appropriate place to brood…"

"I guess…" she admitted. "It's just… I really wanted to do something like this for a long time… you know, have a sort of normal date that didn't involve one or both of us about to collapse from injuries or exhaustion…"

"You're a 14-year old Sage who looks even younger dating a 16-year old assassin with a permanently fixed death glare… normal somehow isn't the mental image I get," he remarked. "But that's not what I wanted to say… Excalibur, Nino?" and he cocked an eyebrow at the young girl. Unfortunately, it was precisely the wrong eyebrow, and he lost his monocle again. After carefully replacing it on his nose, the purple-haired man went on, "He's a 'Hero,' not a Pegasus Knight."

"Not a coal miner," Nino added.

"What?"

"I don't get it either," she admitted.

"It's dead, Duo," a figure approached the omnipotent author, cloaked in his mysterious cloak of not telling people things about what he actually looks like.

"What is?" the teen replied.

"This joke. And the rest of the ones in the fic. If you want to skip ahead to Florina and Hector so badly maybe you just should!"

"Yeah, well you're just a convenient plot device, so shut up!" he replied. The figure couldn't think of a response to that, and so vanished back into the stock of author tricks from whence it came.

"Ever get the feeling like the universe at large is ignoring you?" Canas asked suddenly.

"All the time," Nino answered.

"Anyway, I know you're really excited, Nino, but don't get into threatening people too much. It tends to waste spells, and besides, most of us would probably help you if you just ask."

"Okay," Nino consented, and Canas ruffled her hair in a… come to think of it, he wasn't entirely sure if his role was closer to being paternal or co-conspiratorial. Anyway, he was 90 certain it was the sort of thing one did after giving a lecture to a child, his own son hadn't had enough hair to bother before Canas had left on his continuing quest for knowledge.

"Aw, I still have to comb that…" she sighed and pulled away. She then shot the young man a smile, and was on her way.

Canas smiled, and, not for the first time that night, he thought of his wife. Only then did he realize that he appeared to have forgotten her name. He stood there, lost in thought for a moment, and when this didn't solve anything for him, he opened one of the journals he usually carried in a pouch on his belt and flipped through the early entries, only to find his wife's name blotted out with dark ink on every page where she was mentioned.

"C-clearly…" he said aloud, blinking in amazement, "this is the result of some sort of space-time warping conspiracy, and not at all my fault…" And with that, he gathered his books, each thick enough that they could be measured in arm lengths, and, staggering under their weight, made his way back toward his own tent. Suddenly it seemed that the cool spring night had turned remarkably chilly. Also, for some reason it smelled rather like his mother, a smell that had some… less than pleasant associations for him.

Eliwood slumped forward in defeat. He had combed the entire camp twice, and he still had found no sign of Ninian. How was it possible to misplace a girl with green hair and red eyes? Well, then again, he admitted, odd hair and eye colors didn't exactly make one stand out in this group…

So, he at last settled upon the obvious conclusion, that Ninian was somewhere other than the camp. That no one had seen her leave was odd. He wondered if it meant that she wanted to be left alone. If that was the case, he should probably go along with her wish… after cursing his own choice for a night to take off, anyway. Even if Hector had more to do with it than he did.

Thinking this, Eliwood reluctantly decided to go find somewhere quiet to just sit and think for a bit. Suddenly, hanging around with everyone at the camp sounded rather unappealing to him.

"So, this line is supposed to be, "Your eyes are like radiant pools I could swim in forever?" Kent asked skeptically, facing his green counterpart within his own, purely by coincidence, orange tent.

"Look you asked for my help," Sain reminded him.

"Lady Lyndis' eyes are green," the red knight pointed out.

"Yes, well, there are greenish pools," Sain answered.

"Given how frequently the female members of our group tend to completely ignore you, or actually react negatively, I'm not so certain that asking you for help was one of my better ideas…" Kent admitted.

"Yes, but you can't beat me for experience with talking to women," Sain told his friend and partner.

"Partner? I'm your superior!" Kent exclaimed.

"Kent, stop reading the descriptions, we've already broken the fourth wall in this chapter," Sain said with a sigh.

"Right, right… anyway. I really don't know if Lady Lyndis would like this sort of thing…" Kent said slowly.

"You could have someone pretend to kidnap her and then ride in to save the day," Sain suggested.

"Someone she couldn't escape from by the time I got there?"

"Good point."

"Glad you think so, now could you offer some actually useful advice?"

"I'm trying…" Sain said with a note of complaint in his voice.

"Maybe I'm better off just being myself and approaching her like I normally would…" Kent mused.

"Ah, I've got it!" the green knight exclaimed. "Great advice, this. Whatever you do, _don't_ be your usual, stuffy, duty-obsessed, rule-bound, honorable, stern, and rather unromantic self."

"You're about as helpful as a rock."

"Well, if you think our lady is in to that sort of thing…" Sain said with a shrug.

"That's it, I'm leaving," the red night turned to walk out of… "That's it, you're leaving," he amended, and began pushing Sain towards the tent's closed flaps.

"Wait, wait, wait," Sain protested, digging his feet into the ground rather ineffectively. "I don't have a place to sleep! Nino commandeered my tent." The orange-haired knight shot him a questioning glance, and Sain merely shrugged and asked "Can _you _say 'no,' to Nino?"

"Oh, I'm sure for the master of women, finding a place to sleep is no trouble at all," Kent shot the other knight a devious grin as he pushed him.

"You really have a cruel streak, don't you?" the other asked. When this failed to produce a response, he at last said, "All right, all right! A trade! Let me sleep in here tonight, and I'll get you some nice clothes to impress Lady Lyndis!"

"What's wrong with-," Kent began, then looked down at himself. His armor showed plenty of use, never having been really dressy to begin with, and in fact, quite uncomfortable to wear regularly. Thinking for a moment, he stopped pushing, and Sain took this opportunity to break free and put several paces between him and the other knight. "It won't be _green_, will it?" he finally asked.

"Kent, my friend, step into my office."

"I thought you said that _this_ was your office."

"This is more like our outlet location," the green knight corrected. "Our main office is elsewhere, now come on."

Eliwood eventually, after a bit of wandering, found himself in a small clearing in the woods, which, he thought, was perhaps even more picturesque than where he had set up the dinner he had wanted to invite Ninian to. He should really go clean that up now, he thought, when suddenly he heard singing. It was no language he had ever heard before, which more or less meant that it wasn't the common tongue, or a magic spell, language barriers being nonexistent in Elibe.

He followed the pleasant but eerie sound. Somehow, despite being quite sure that he had never heard this song before, it seemed familiar to him, and as he drew nearer to where it appeared to be coming from, this feeling of familiarity grew greater still. The voice, a woman's, he could now tell, was sad and happy at once, if that made sense. He scarcely could understand himself, but something about the music struck a chord in him, and he felt drawn toward it, without even considering what he might find, or who or what might be singing in a language he had never heard.

At last, he got his answer. Suddenly another small clearing, there seemed an inexplicably convenient number of them in this forest, came into view, and he saw Ninian, moving in a sort of graceful dance, the kind he had seen her perform countless times on and off the battlefield, fulfilling every purpose from lifting spirits to inspiring great feats of strength in warriors. She moved slowly, repeating her own steps as if to make sure that she had them properly memorized. Suddenly, she looked up, and her eyes locked on Eliwood's own, having been too entranced to think of doing anything but standing there and watching for the few moments the dance continued.

"L-l-lord Eliwood!" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Ninian… I didn't mean to…" he began awkwardly.

"No… that's okay…" she answered. "I was just… a bit startled. Would you like to watch? It's… the dance I promised I would show you."

"Of course," the Pheraen noble agreed. "I love watching your dances."

Ninian smiled, and the dance began. This time, the feeling that Eliwood had merely glimpsed before overwhelmed him, watching her weave gracefully back and forth, accompanied by a voice unlike any other in the world, which is only just barely an exaggeration, considering that she is a dragon. The dance, and the song as well, were both sad and happy at once, sadness within happiness, and happiness within sadness. It was a song of bittersweet victory, of painful triumph, and of defeat that left hope alive. It spoke of joy torn away by sacrifice and sacrifice that left behind it greater joy. A song of suffering for the sake of happiness, and happiness that must end in suffering.

"Ninian…" the lord said slowly, a strange and unreadable expression that seemed to be a mix of every emotion between despair and elation on his face. "Is that song…?"

"Yes," she answered. "It's a dance for my brother. And… it's a dance for us as well."

"You know," he began, "There was something that I wanted to tell you… but now I've completely forgotten what it was," he chuckled at himself.

"We could stay here until you remember what it is," Ninian suggested with a smile.

"I won't be in any hurry, in that case," Eliwood replied, and Ninian laughed.

Kindly hold your boos and hisses for me ripping off Shakespeare until the end of the performance.

Hector sighed, and paused a moment, propping himself up against the wall of the ravine with an arm. Okay, so taking off running shortly after waking up, having just been pounded on by a Pegasus and then falling 70 feet, being saved most of the impact by the same Pegasus but then being thrown off of its back and slamming into the rock wasn't exactly a great idea. Duly noted.

He had been walking already for some time, how long he had no idea, and he had found neither a climbable section of the sheer walls nor an end to the ravine. He supposed that was what he got for not looking up and down the thing longer than it took to find a way across.

The blue haired lord sighed again. "Idiot," he berated himself. This whole thing had turned out so much worse than he had thought… He was just supposed to get Florina to the lake, let her out, and then confess what was on his mind. If he had just tried to talk to her a little harder, maybe things wouldn't have ended up like this…

"Idiot," he said again, muttering under his breath. "You were supposed to apologize for threatening her Pegasus to get her to talk to you, not nearly kill the damn thing…" The expression on his face, almost unreadable in the dim light, was filled with sadness. Could Huey even survive until morning, when someone would surely think to come and find them? Florina had looked so sad as she checked over his injuries… he couldn't even think what would happen to her if the Pegasus died.

'I'll find us a way out,' what a load of crap that was. What did he expect to find, a staircase carved into the side of a ravine where there had been sheer rock walls before? Was he going to suddenly master healing magic and return Huey to normal? What could he do except fight, anyway? Strength, stamina, what good were they, if his own stupidity landed him in this sort of situation?

For once in his life, Hector honestly felt like giving up, like just stopping and begging someone else to fix things for him. Instead, he started walking again, along the narrow path that was the only thing before him and the only thing behind.

When he returned to the spot where Florina and Huey were waiting, Hector found that the purple-haired knight had employed the sack she had been carried in to bind up the Pegasus' broken legs, though she didn't know if it would do any good. She had also fashioned bandages for the few open wounds that the winged horse had sustained, but mostly she found that there wasn't a lot she could do except sit next to him, whispering softly that he had done a really good job saving them, and apologizing for not being able to do the same for him.

"Lord Hector?" her face was still wet with tears, though he could barely tell with what little light made its way down into the ravine.

"There's nothing that way," he said simply, gesturing in the direction he had come from. "The ravine just ends, there's nowhere we can climb, certainly not all the way to the top, at any rate."

The look that came into her face was filled with such despair that Hector hated himself more for his own inability to get them out of the ravine. He hated that he had to pass on this grim intelligence, hated that it was, in the end, his fault that they were there in the first place.

"I'll check… over there in a minute," the words were strangely hard to say, like his muscles were suddenly struggling to even do something as minor as talking. Had it been quite that dark a minute ago? Suddenly he slumped forward, catching himself, just barely, before he lost all control, and managed to angle himself so that he collided with the wall next to him instead of the ground. Forcing his weight against the wall, he managed to retain a semi-upright position, but it was like his entire body was weighted down beyond what even his strength could lift.

"Lord Hector!" she exclaimed, and dashed over. "Are you okay?" At the same time Hector was almost glad to see her turn the same expression on him as she had on Huey when she saw the condition the horse was in, he couldn't bear the fact that he had given her something else to worry about.

"Yeah… I'm fine…" he answered slowly. He was. He just needed a moment to…

Suddenly, the precarious balance he had maintained was lost, and Hector, his armored shoulder pad grating against the wall, slipped backwards, eyes unfocused. Florina, something between a gasp and a shout escaping her lips, tried to grab the lord by the shoulders before he hit the ground, but the armored man proved heavier than she had guessed, and she only succeeded in being dragged down with him.

The two slammed into the ground with a clattering of armor, and Florina, momentum not quite arrested, rolled off of the blue haired lord and onto the ground next to him.

Readers will, hopefully, forgive me this horrendously overused anime convention (Ahah. Hah. See, it's a play on words.), and note that the fact that it did not turn into a bad joke or end with either party embarrassed out of their wits only further illustrates the gravity of the situation. Or something like that… Unless this violates the former… cause it's definitely bad…

"Lord Hector?" Florina said questioning, pulling herself back into a sitting position and leaning over the fallen lord's body. When he didn't respond, she wasted no time in undoing the straps that held on the armor he was wearing, quite battered with use, and that night's events leaving their own scars atop those already accumulated.

Carefully, she lifted free the chest plate, detaching the lord's cape and shoulder pads in the process. Beneath his armor, the lord wore a blue shirt, fastened with a row of buttons down the center, which Florina immediately began undoing. She didn't know a whole lot about giving first aid to humans; a Pegasus Knight's training focused, first and foremost, on the Pegasus, but due to their nature as fast, airborne units, a bit of human first aid was included.

Hector's chest bore several scars, testament to when his armor hadn't been strong enough or his arm fast enough, but remarkably few for someone who fought so frequently. His entire chest was bruised, possibly with some more serious internal bleeding in a few spots, but nothing severe. Most of the blows themselves had been absorbed by the armor, but the shock had carried through, and it looked as though a couple of his ribs might be cracked a little. 'Blows from what?' she wondered. Had all of this really been caused by the fall into the ravine. And, if that was so, why was she still comparatively okay?

A groan drew her attention up to Hector's face as he slowly opened his eyes, looking up at her. "Are you… okay, Hector? –Sama," she hastily added, though under the circumstances it probably didn't matter.

"Fine," he grunted, and tried to push himself into a sitting position.

"Don't!" she cried. "Um… I mean… you collapsed because of your injuries, so you should rest…"

"No… time…" he said between panting breaths as he fought his way upward, sweat breaking out on his brow, only to suddenly fall back, gasping with pain. "I… have to…" he tried to force his way up again, but only succeeded in making it a few inches off of the ground before he fell back.

"Please don't…" she said meekly. "I mean… I want Huey to be okay, but… I don't want you to get hurt or die, either…"

Him, die? That was only fair, wasn't it? After all, if anyone should be hurt, it should be him, not Huey, who was just trying to help his rider, and then saved him, even though he had put her in danger… For a moment all he could do was breathe, great gulps of air taken through teeth clenched against pain.

"Please… could you… stay here? For just a moment…" she said, now pleading. "I know you have to go but… for now… could you stay with me?"

That… that he could do. And for a moment, Hector didn't care what exactly she had meant by her words. He didn't care whether she had spoken only to stop him from running off and hurting himself worse. And so, he stayed.

Next time, Hector and Florina get absolutely no screen time. Or maybe they will… who knows? I certainly don't… It's really a question of how obsessed I am with the pairing at the time. But, when Nino finally asks Jaffar out, what horrors will he discover when he opens his closet (or equivalent thereof)? Jikai, 10 Simple Rules for Dating Outside of Your Character Class: "Jaffar's Plight." Go on a crazy adventure to find some nice clothes, teenage assassin guy with really scary red eyes! Okay, so "Gundam," has much more of a ring to it, but I couldn't very well use it here...

_Ending note: Okay, just two quick things, I think._

_-Sama: This is a Japanese honorific, which are attached as suffixes to a person's name, or at least (i.e., Florina should have said 'Hector-sama,' but forgot and added it as an afterthought), that's the case for all the ones I've come across (and remember, anyway). The basic equivalent of it is "Lord," or the like, something very respectful and frequently used for like, the leader of an organization or an emperor or something, I believe. Anyway, I'm assuming that this is what most of the characters in Rekka no Ken use to refer to the lords, since "Lord," is the translation of it. However, I can't really use "lord" in this case, because it'd be awkward for Florina to add a prefix after the fact, besides being more likely to forget a suffix than a prefix to his name. So this once, I went with the fanboy Japanese solution, and yes it does feel very out of place, but…what are you gonna do?._

"_Not a coal miner/It's dead, Duo,": These are parodies of the famous lines "I'm a doctor, not a ," on one occasion filled in with the words 'coal miner,' and "He's dead, Jim," said by Leonard McCoy, a doctor of Star Trek fame. _

_Oh, one last thing…If either of the Fire Emblem C2s that currently have "Of Prewedding Jitters and the House of Frob," in them (the only fic I've written in a C2 so far) are at all interested in picking up this…Florina has a bigger role than in that one, anyway, or will, and it's at least as fluffy, so just a thought. Does the person in charge just add fics or can an author submit them? Oh, but for the Florina: Winged Knight C2 I guess the director is computer impaired at the moment…Anyway, just thinking it'd be cool to have more of my fics in C2 communities, and it's good for the communities to have more fics, as long as they fit and are any good, right? (Okay, so that last one is up for debate…)_

_And so, once again, I can only assume you've been a wonderful audience. If you've been making faces at me through the screen the whole time I seriously suggest you get a life, and add to that sentiment, the exclamation "Nyeh!" And thus, I bid you adieu._


End file.
